Visual Studio Code vs Git

Visual Studio Code: what it's good at

VS Code combines the speed of a text editor with the capability of an IDE: intelligent completion, integrated debugging, built-in Git support and an enormous extension marketplace covering essentially every language and framework.

• IntelliSense code completion
• Integrated debugger and terminal
• Built-in Git version control
• Vast extension marketplace

Git: what it's good at

Git is the distributed version control system behind GitHub, GitLab and virtually all modern software development. It tracks every change, enables branching and merging, and is a prerequisite for most development workflows.

• Distributed version control
• Fast branching and merging
• Complete offline history
• Universal industry standard

Which should you choose?

Both are free, so the honest answer is that you can install either and decide for yourself — that is the advantage of free software over a paid trial.

Both run on Windows, macOS, Linux. If open source matters to you, Git publishes its source code and Visual Studio Code does not.

We deliberately do not publish a star rating for either. We have no way to verify a rating that would be honest at scale, and an invented one would be worse than none — so we give you the facts and let you decide.

Frequently asked questions

Is Visual Studio Code better than Git?

Neither is universally better. Visual Studio Code the most widely used code editor in the world, while Git the version control system the software industry runs on. The right pick depends on your platform and workflow.

Are both really free?

Visual Studio Code is free and Git is open source. Both can be downloaded without paying.

Can I install both?

Yes. Since neither costs anything, installing both and comparing them on your own files is usually the fastest way to decide.